Apocalypse Aftermath (6 page)

The door locks clicked, and she spoke without turning.  “Candice, keep your seatbelt on, but stay away from the doors.  Don’t touch them at all.”

“Okay.”

She didn’t know if the SUV had child locks or not, but as long as Candice didn’t try to operate the door handles everything should be fine. 
“Everything’s going to be fine.  Nothing can get in.”
she told herself again as she turned the steering wheel slightly to drift the SUV over to the left side of the Interstate.

“This is going to be bumpy, so be ready.” she told Candice as the SUV neared the wreckage.  She hugged the breakdown lane next to the guardrail as they closed on what was left of the horde.  Having something to do was helping, she realized as she caught herself eyeing the trailer and trying to pick out the best line for her final approach.  A slight smile appeared, but she quickly banished it as she judged she was about where she wanted to start curving in.

The SUV rocked as it rolled over bodies, and she winced as her injured knee protested the bumpy ride.  She was hanging onto the steering wheel as tightly as she could, trying to keep her arms locked to prevent the back and forth of the SUV from causing her to let it start meandering.  The people on the trailer were watching the vehicle as it closed in, then they vanished when she lost the angle.  Jessica turned the wheel more, then some more.

The front end of the vehicle swung around to the right a few feet from the edge of the wrecked cars.  The trailer was right in front of her, along with the remaining zombies still on their feet.  She kept the steady pressure on the accelerator and drove right into them without pause.  Only a couple of the zombies bothered to look at the SUV as it ran them over, the front bumper knocking them down as the vehicle’s mass carried it through them.

Two thumps came from above, and Jessica braked, a little more sharply than she felt she should’ve.  She winced, half expecting Austin to appear on the windshield and hood as she braced herself against the steering wheel, but instead she heard his feet on the roof as he stood up.

“Come on.” he was saying, loudly enough that she could hear him.  “Can you make it down?”

The SUV rocked as more feet thumped down on the roof.  Jessica glanced around nervously, eyeing the mirrors and looking over her shoulder to see out the windows.  Behind her she saw a pair of zombies starting to regain their feet.  She happened to be looking out the passenger window when a mottled hand smacked against it.

“Mom . . .” Candice said warningly as a man’s head, the hair tousled and dirty and the face pale and bloodstained from the nose down past his neck pulled himself up.

“It’s fine.  We’re okay.” Jessica said as the zombie clawed at the window.  It didn’t seem to be trying to get inside the SUV.  She realized after a couple of seconds it was focused on whatever was going on up on the vehicle’s roof.  “It can’t see in through the window tint.” Jessica said, not sure if she was trying to reassure Candice or herself.

“Is it going to get Austin?”

“No, Austin’s fine.” Jessica replied, though she wondered.  The SUV was a big vehicle, but it wasn’t so tall that the roof wasn’t completely out of reach.  She saw the zombie’s arms going up, then a leg wearing a black boot and black trousers appeared from above, kicking at it strongly.  The zombie collapsed back out of view, and Jessica almost laughed.  “Austin’s fine.”

“I hope they hurry up.” Candice said.

“I’m sure they’re going as fast as they can.” Jessica said, then a gloved hand appeared in the top middle of the windshield and knocked on it three times.  Austin was the only one she’d seen who was wearing gloves in the Georgia late summer, so she knew it had to be him.

“Okay, here we go.”  She took her foot off the brake and reminded herself to take it easy as she shifted over to the accelerator.  The SUV rocked slowly as its wheels rolled over bodies.  She heard some faint thumping from below, which caused her to frown in puzzlement, but the SUV kept moving without a problem.  She curved slowly around to the right and finally got clear of the field of bodies.  The ride smoothed out, and she steadied their course up, headed north.

The convoy was waiting right where they’d left it.  As they pulled up, she saw doors opening and people started emerging, guns in hand.  Not everyone, but enough to cover the convoy.  The hand appeared in front of the windshield again and knocked once.  She brought the SUV to a halt, looked around, then shifted into park and set the brake.  As the Eagle people stood watch, mostly eying the sides of the road, she felt the vehicle rocking and caught motion in the driver’s side mirror.  Then she turned her head and looked over her shoulder.

Austin was climbing down, his weapon slung at his side.  He reached back up and helped a woman down.  It was the blonde, and she was definitely wearing a body armor vest.  And a pistol was holstered on her belt.  The blouse and slacks she wore beneath the armor looked fairly stylish, but were showing signs of considerable wear.  More than a little dirt, with the blouse especially looking like it had been in use for several days.

She was shaking badly, and she was sobbing as she literally fell into Austin’s arms.  He steadied her and said something quietly that didn’t carry through the windows.  The woman nodded, but her crying continued.  Austin walked her a few steps away from the SUV and tentatively let go, letting his hands hover as if he expected her to collapse.  But she kept her feet, scrubbing at her face with the back of her hand as she looked around.

The man sort of slid down the side of the SUV, stumbling when he hit the ground, but he didn’t fall.  He turned and helped the other woman, the brunette, down.  She used his hand for balance but hopped down mostly on her own.  She had a bright green neon and purple backpack on that was at odds with the black body armor and weapons.  A bulky gun that Jessica only recognized as some sort of shotgun – maybe – was in her hand, and she had a pair of pistols on her belt; one on the side and the other at the small of her back.

“Are they okay?” Candice asked.

“I think so.” Jessica answered as she looked around.  The area seemed clear, and there were a lot of people with eyes and guns watching, so she hit the buttons that lowered the window and unlocked the doors.  It hummed down to admit the blonde’s sobs as background for other voices.

“—been stuck up there since just before dawn.” the brunette was saying to Austin.  “I thought for a minute you guys might keep going.”

“Wouldn’t have been the first to turn around and ditch us.” the man said in a tone that was clearly trying for humor despite the stress in it.

“How’d y’all end up stuck?” Austin asked.

“My car ran out of gas a couple of miles up the road.” the man said, gesturing north.  “I forgot the gas gauge is broken.”  The brunette frowned at him, but only briefly before she turned and took several steps to the other woman.  The man kept talking as the brunette slung the shotgun behind her shoulder and wrapped her arms around the blonde in a hug.  “We were on foot headed south, and we tried to get around that in the trees.”  He gestured at the wreckage to the south.

“Got cut off?” Austin asked.

“Sure as shit did.” the man shrugged.  “We’d seen the zombies on the road, which was why we were out in the trees, but it turned out they were all over the place.  We tried to shoot our way through, but Darla was running low on ammo so we made a break for the wrecks and managed to climb up out of reach.  That’s basically it.”

Jessica saw Tyler approaching on foot, his face wearing an expression Jessica instantly recognized as one of professional disapproval.  The kind a boss wore in a business environment when he was unhappy with a subordinate.  She reminded herself that, technically, Austin
was
an employee of Tyler’s; though she was not only getting less thrilled with that concept, she was also starting to wonder if who worked for who had a whole lot of meaning anymore.

“Mr. Carter.”

Austin turned enough to acknowledge Tyler without putting his back to the trio of rescuees.  “This is Mr. Morris.  He’s in charge.”

“Sam Kirkwood.” the man said before Tyler could say anything.  “This is Darla and Beth.  Ah, I haven’t exactly caught their last names.”

“I’m glad we were able to help you out, but if you don’t mind, I need to have a private word with Mr. Carter.”

“Sure.” Sam said uncertainly.  “Uh, sure.  Don’t want to get in the way.”  He walked away from the SUV, toward the two women.  Darla – Jessica assumed she was the one with all the weapons – was making some limited headway toward calming Beth down.  Sam joined them, positioning himself so his back was to Tyler and Austin.

Tyler jerked his head commandingly, and Austin preceded him toward the front of the SUV.  Jessica tracked their progress covertly, trying not to be obvious as she cocked her head to catch what she could of their conversation.  Austin stopped just past the bumper and turned to face Tyler, straightening to a stiff, formal stance with his face smoothed back over into that impassive expression Jessica had already seen.  He looked like he knew he was being called on the carpet.

“Don’t understand . . . disobey . . . put at risk . . . ammunition . . . had gotten stuck . . . completely unacceptable.” Jessica heard through the background of light wind and idling engines.  Tyler’s tone was severe, and it was obvious he was quite angry.  She recognized the signs.  Most people who wore suits like a second skin rarely screamed, but they typically had a knack for making themselves clear without needing to resort to theatrics.

“Is Austin in trouble?”

Jessica turned her head.  “I don’t know.”

“But why is—”

“Candice, it’s something for Mr. Morris and Austin to talk about.” Jessica interrupted, using her Mom tone.  “Not us.”

Candice subsided, and Jessica returned her full attention to the men.  Austin said something from his stiff position, something that made Tyler visibly sigh.  She watched as both men were silent for several seconds – Austin waiting while Tyler apparently considered whatever Austin had said – until Tyler finally sighed again.  Tyler glanced around, then pulled a folded map from the inside pocket of his jacket.  Unfolding it enough to be usable, he laid it on the hood of the SUV and the two of them bent over it.  Austin ran his finger over the paper, then tapped something and spoke.  Tyler considered it and nodded.

Austin stepped back as Tyler turned, refolding the map as he walked toward the trio of rescuees.  The big man followed, his posture still straight and formal.  Jessica glanced at the rescuees.  The blonde was a little calmer, though she was hovering almost in contact with Darla.  Sam turned as Darla’s eyes focused on the approaching Tyler.

“As I said, I’m glad we were able to bail you out, but there’s a limit to what other help we can provide.” Tyler said in a composed tone of calculated reason.  “We’re tight on space and time, but Mr. Carter assures me he can squeeze you into his vehicle at least as far as the next couple of exits.”

Beth nodded eagerly, but Darla’s face showed confusion and a hint of anger.  “What does that mean?”

“We can get you out of the middle of nowhere.” Tyler said.  “Somewhere with shelter so you can rest up and decide your next move.”

“What are you guys, military?”

Tyler shook his head at Sam.  “No, though some of us are ex-military.”  Jessica thought that was stretching the truth at least somewhat; Austin was, but so far as she knew no one else in the convoy had ever been in uniform.

Darla was studying Tyler with the anger on her face starting to slowly shift to the fore, but Jessica saw her eyes flick to Austin’s face for a moment. 
Jessica couldn’t see his expression with his back mostly to the SUV, but he must have done something that made Darla reevaluate.  She nodded slowly, then again more certainly.  “Rescue and a ride.  There are worse deals I guess.”

“Excellent.” Tyler said briskly.  “Mr. Carter will get you settled, then we’ll all be on our way.”  Tyler nodded to them and headed for the BMW.

“Give me a minute to get everyone rearranged.” Austin said as Tyler departed.  He turned and opened Jessica’s door.  “I think the best way to fit them is to put them all in the back seat.” he said quietly when she looked up at him.  “You want to slide back across, or get out and go around?”

Jessica blinked, still trying to process everything that was happening.  She shook off Tyler’s actions and considered her leg.  “Um, hand me my cane and I can limp around.”

“What if I just let you use me as the cane.” he said, offering his arm.

“If you can manage, I guess I can too.” she said with a flash of a smile.  Taking hold of his arm just above the elbow, she let him take most of her weight on the left side as she swiveled around and slid out of the SUV to land on her right foot.  Slowly she limped around the front of the SUV, leaning unconcernedly on Austin to avoid doing more than the most basic – and light – balancing with her left leg.  She was unsurprised when Austin all but lifted her up into the passenger seat when they got there, and didn’t object.

He leaned and reached past her to move the bundle of towels as she got herself resituated.  Her knee was definitely aching now, but she bore it without complaint.  It wasn’t even close to as bad as it had been the previous night.  She could handle it.

“How’s that?”

“Fine, thanks.” she said, smiling again.